Dental-floss holder.



c. `B. owLmG an.. B. BENNETT.

DENTAL FLOSS HULDER.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 3|. ISI?.

1,250,951" I Patented' Dec. 25, 191?.

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UNITED srATEs rA'rENT orario, l

CIMLRENCE B. BOWLING AND LEROY B. BENNETT, OF DETROIT, MICHIGAN,ASSIGNORS T0 BOWLING DENTAL MANUFACTURING CO., OE" DETROIT, MICHIGAN, ACORPORA- TION OF MICHIGAN.

Specification of Letters Patent.

v Patented Dec. 25, 1917.

Application filed March 31, 1917. Serial No. 159,033.

To all fr0/tom it may concern:

Be it known that we, CLARENCE B. Bow- LiNG and LEROY B. BENNETT,citizens of the United States of America, residing at Detroit, in thecounty of Vayne and State of Michigan, have invented certain new anduseful Improvements in Dental-Floss Holders, of which the following is aspecification, reference being had therein to the accompanying drawings.

This is an improvement in connection with a dental floss holder.disclosed in Patent No. 1,158,890, granted to one of the presentapplicants under date of November 2, 1915. 1n this patent there isdisclosed a simple, durable and inexpensive floss holder having noveland efficient means for holding the floss whereby the active portion ofthe floss may be readily renewed and tightened, and while this holder isefficient in many respects yet the present invention aims to provide aholder possessing many advantages from the standpoint of a user andmanufacturer.

The first improvement may be considered in connection with the bow ormeans of holding the floss in an active position. In the patent referredto, the floss is disposed in parallelism with the longitudinal side ofthe bow, and it has been found that the floss holder could not beconveniently manipulated in the mouth, particularly in proximity to amolar tooth or one in the back part of a jaw. The holder necessitatesthe mouth being wide open during such operation, much to theinconvenience of the manipulator of the holder, so we discovered that byholding the floss at an angle relative to the back of the bow, it waspossible to manipulate our improved holder in the mouth with the mouthalmost closed.

Furthermore, the angularity of the floss relative to the bow permits oftooth cavities or space between teeth being more readily reached withoutany danger of the gums being` injured.

The second improvement resides in the means for drawing the floss tautrelative to the bow. In the patent above referred to an arm and a nutwere employed, both being separate, consequently the arm could notfollow the nut when being retracted. Now, we connect these elements sothat the arm will be at all times removed longitudinally of the bow withthe nut, which is quite a convenience when renewing an active portion ofthe floss.

The third improvement is that of arranging a knife at the outer end ofthe holder body so that the floss can be easily cut. `The disposal ofthe knife is such as not to injure the hand manipulating the holder, orany fabric that may contact with the holder.

Besides the above there are other improvements that will hereinafterappear as the invention is better understood, and reference will now behad to the drawing, wherein- Figure 1 is a longitudinal sectional viewof the floss holder;

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same;

Fig. 3 is a plan of a portion of the holder;

Fig. 4 is a cross sectional view of a bow;

Fig. 5 is a detail view of a portion of an adjustable bow arm, and

Fig. 6 is a longitudinal section of a portion of a modified form ofholder.

vIn the drawing, 1 denotes a suitable hanldle made of al suitablematerial and having one end thereof closed, as at 2, while the oppositeend is interiorly screwthreaded, as at 3, to receive a cap or plug 4having a nose portion 5. The tubular handle 1 constitutes a containerfor a cop or cartridge of floss 6 and this floss is arranged so that itmay be readily reeled off or withdrawn through a longitudinal opening 7in the cap 4, said opening being to one side of the longitudinal axis ofsaid cap, and of such diameter that the floss can be easily threadedtherethrough and readily pulled out of the tubular handle.

Mounted in the cap 4 is the inner end of a rod VS and the greater partof said rod is screwthreaded, as at 9,for a nut 10. The nut 10 ispreferably'lniurled so as to facilitate rotation and the inner end ofsaid nut has a collar 11 engaging under the flange 12 of a bearing 13for an arm 14. The bearing 13 is slidable on fiat facets 15A of thethreaded portion of the rod 8 and is consequently held against rotationwhen being shifted longitudinally of the rod by the v nut 10. The flatfacets in connection with the rod obviates the necessity of usingfeathers or keys and afford a more substantial seat for the bearing 13of the arm 14.

The outer end of the rod 8 terminates in a fixed arm 16 disposed atright angles to the rod 8 and of greater length than the arm 1l, so thatwhen the floss connects the arms ll and 16, the strand of oss held bysaid arms will be disposed at an acute angle `relativ to the rod 8, andthis angle may be varied by lengthening or shortening said arms. The rod8 and arms 14 and 16 constitute ay bow and outer end or extremity ofeach arm has an apertured head 17 with the aperture of said headintersected by a bifurcation or slot 18, thus providing opposing armsaround either of which the floss may be wound and anchoredrrelative tothe arms 14 and 16. The heads 17 permit of the floss being easily andquickly placed in engagement with the arms and after a strand of flosshas been fixed relative to said arms, the nut 10 canv be rotated to drawthe floss taut, thus placing the strand of floss in such condition andposition that it can be used in the mouth.

rl`he nose 5 of the cap or plug l is provided with a member or knife 19radially disposed relative to the axis of the cap or plug and 'the innerend of the knife is adapted to engage one of the facets of the rod andthus prevent rotation of the same. The outer end of the knife 19protrudes sufficiently from the side of the nose 5 to permit of thefloss being placed in engagement therewith and said knife has a cut-tingedge, and is preferably triangular in cross section. After a strand ofthe oss has been used the permanent knife 19 permits of the strand beingquickly severed, the used strand removed, and anew piece withdrawn fromthe tubular handle and connected to the arms 14 and 16 of the bow.

1n Fig. 6 there is illustrated a slight modification of our inventionwherein the bow is made in two sections 20 and 21 articulated by a nutor turn-buckle 22 so that the sect-ion 21 carrying the outer arm 23 maybe moved to and from the section 20. Connected to the nut 22 is a shortarm 24 and as the nut 22 is adjusted, the short arm is also movedrelative to the arm 23. The arms 23 and 24 have the usual heads 17 sothat a piece of floss may be disposed at an angle t-o the bow. Thesections 20 and 21 are also connected, as at 25, so as to maintain thearms 23 in the same plane as the arms 2l. Furthermore, the handle of theholder has a cap or plu@ 26 provided with a bayonet slot and pinconnection 27, so that the cap or plug may be partially rotated and thenshifted into the handle of the holder so as to reduce the longitudinaldimensions of the device and permit of it being readily carried in avest pocket.

It is thought that the operation and utility of the floss holder will beapparent without further description, and while in the drawing there isillustrated a preferred embodiment of our invention, it is to beunderstood that the structural elements are susceptible to such changes,in size, shape, material and manner of assemblage as fall within thescope of the appended claims.

That we claim is:-4

1. In a dental floss holder, a bow comprising arms of different lengthadapted to hold a strand of floss at an angle to said bow, and means onsaid bow constantly in engagement with one of the arms thereof adaptedfor shifting the arm.

2. In a dental floss holder, a bow comprising arms of different lengthadapted for holding a piece of floss at an angle relative to said bow,and a nut on said bow constantly in engagement with one of the armsthereof for adjusting said arm relative toV said bow.

3. In a dental floss holder comprising a handle serving as a containerfor floss, a bow supported from said handle comprising arms of differentlength adapted to hold a strand of the floss at an angle relative tosaid bow, and means on said bow adapted for adjusting one of the armsthereof.

Ll, ln a dental floss holder, a tubular handle adapted to contain floss,an apertured cap carriedA by said handle adapted to have the flossextend therethrough, a bow carried by said cap comprising a long andshort arm adapted to hold a strandof the floss, and means on said bowconstantly in engagement with the short arm for shift-ing said armlongitudinally of said bow.

In testimony whereof we affix our signatures in presence of twowitnesses.

CLAREYCE B. BOWLING. LEROY B. BENNETT.

Witnesses KARL H. BUTLER, ANNA M. Donn.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. C.

